EXAMPLE 5.

2-2: Design of an Air Heater

You are designing a device to heat a flow of air from an inlet temperature of T
in
= 20C to a
mean outlet temperature of T
out
= 80C. The inlet pressure is p
in
= 100 psia and the mass flow
rate is 0.01 kg/s m = . Your preliminary design concept is a copper tube wrapped with a heater
that provides a uniform heat flux,
s
q . The thickness of the tube is th = 0.035 inch and the
tube/heater assembly is insulated. You must specify the tube outer diameter, D
o
, and length, L.
There are a few design constraints: the pressure drop through the tube must be no larger than
p
max
= 10 psi, the heat flux provided by the heater must be no larger than
, s max
q =9000 W/m
2
,
and the surface temperature of the tube (which is approximately equal to the heater temperature)
must be no larger than T
s,max
= 100C.

a.) Develop a model that can analyze a particular design. Use the model to determine whether a
heater that is L = 4 ft long with outer diameter D
o
= 0.25 inch meets the design criteria.

The inputs and the initial design are entered in EES:

"EXAMPLE 5.2-2: Design of an Air Heater"
$UnitSystem SI MASS RAD PA K J
$Tabstops 0.2 0.4 0.6 3.5 in

"Inputs"
T_in=converttemp(C,K,20[C]) "inlet air temperature"
T_out=converttemp(C,K,80[C]) "outlet mean air temperature"
m_dot=0.01 [kg/s] "mass flow rate"
p_in=100 [psi]*convert(psi,Pa) "inlet pressure"
th=0.035 [inch]*convert(inch,m) "thickness"
DELTAp_max=10 [psi]*convert(psi,Pa) "maximum pressure drop"
q``_dot_s_max=9000 [W/m^2] "maximum heat flux"
T_s_max_max=converttemp(C,K,100[C]) "maximum allowable maximum surface temperature"

"Initial design"
L_ft=4 [ft] "tube length, in ft"
L=L_ft*convert(ft,m) "tube length"
D_o_inch=0.25 [inch] "tube diameter, in inch"
D_o=D_o_inch*convert(inch,m) "tube diameter"

The properties of air (, c, , k, and Pr) are obtained at the average air temperature and inlet air
pressure using EES' internal property functions:

T_bar=(T_in+T_out)/2 "average air temperature"
rho=density(Air,T=T_bar,p=p_in) "density of air"
mu=viscosity(Air,T=T_bar) "viscosity of air"
c=cP(Air,T=T_bar) "specific heat capacity of air"
k=conductivity(Air,T=T_bar) "conductivity of air"
Pr=mu*c/k "Prandtl number of air"

An energy balance on the tube provides the rate of heat transfer that must be provided by the
heater:

( )
out in
q mc T T =

The heat flux is the ratio of the heater power to the external surface area of the tube:


s
o
q
q
D L
=



q_dot=m_dot*c*(T_out-T_in) "heater power required"
q``_dot_s=q_dot/(pi*D_o*L) "heat flux"

which leads to
s
q = 24,820 W/m
2
; therefore, the initial design does not satisfy the design
constraint related to the heat flux.

The bulk velocity of the air flow is:


2
4
m
i
m
u
D
=



where D
i
is the inner diameter of the tube:

2
i o
D D th =

D_i=D_o-2*th "inner diameter of the tube"
u_m=m_dot/(rho*pi*D_i^2/4) "mean velocity"

The Reynolds number is:


h
m i
D
u D
Re

=

Re=rho*u_m*D_i/mu "Reynolds number"

The roughness of a drawn copper tube can be obtained by consulting with the manufacturer.
According to Table 5-1, e 0.0015 mm. The correlations for the average friction factor and
Nusselt numbers ( f , ,
h
D T Nu , and ,
h
D H Nu ) for internal flow through a circular tube are accessed
using the procedure PipeFlow_N.

e=0.0015 [mm]*convert(mm,m) "roughness of tube"
call PipeFlow_N(Re,Pr,L/D_i,e/D_i: Nusselt_bar_T,Nusselt_bar_H,f_bar)
"correlations for average friction factor and Nusselt numbers"

The average friction factor is used to compute the pressure drop across the tube:


2
2
m
i
u L
p f
D

=




DELTAp=(rho*u_m^2/2)*(f_bar*L/D_i) "pressure drop"
DELTAp_psi=DELTAp*convert(Pa,psi) "in psi"

which leads to p = 127,000 Pa (18.4 psi); therefore, the initial design also does not satisfy the
pressure drop requirement.

The tube surface temperature will be highest at the outlet, where the air temperature is highest
and the heat transfer coefficient lowest. The definition of the local heat transfer coefficient is:


( )
s
s m
q
h
T T

where T
m
is the local bulk temperature of the air. The maximum surface temperature of the tube
is therefore:


,
s
s max out
x L
q
T T
h
=

= +

(1)

The local heat transfer coefficient at the tube exit can be obtained using the local Nusselt number
at the tube exit. The correlations for the local friction factor and Nusselt number (f,
,
h
D T
Nu , and
,
h
D H
Nu ) for internal flow through a circular tube are accessed using the procedure
PipeFlow_N_local:

call PipeFlow_N_local(Re,Pr,L/D_i,e/D_i: Nusselt_T,Nusselt_H,f)
"correlations for local friction factor and Nusselt numbers"

The local heat transfer coefficient is computed according to:


,
h
D H
x L
i
Nu k
h
D
=
=

The Nusselt number based on a constant heat flux boundary condition is more appropriate than a
constant temperature boundary condition for this problem. However, because the flow is
turbulent,
,
h
D T
Nu and
,
h
D H
Nu are the same.

h=Nusselt_H*k/D_i "local heat transfer coefficient at the outlet"
T_s_max=T_out+q``_dot_s/h "maximum tube temperature"
T_s_max_C=converttemp(K,C,T_s_max) "in C"

which leads to T
s,max
= 368.4 K (95.3C); therefore, the initial design does satisfy the surface
temperature requirement.

b.) Use your model to obtain a heater design that satisfies all of the design criteria.

Because your EES solution is robust with respect to the inputs, it is possible to use it for design
studies. This is the advantage of solving the problem using a computer program rather than by
hand. Two of the three design constraints are not met by the initial design and there are two
geometric parameters that can be adjusted (tube diameter and length). Solve the problem with
the initial design geometry and update guess values (select Update Guesses from the Calculate
menu). Then comment out the specified value of the heater length and substitute in an equation
that enforces the heat flux design constraint:

{L_ft=4 [ft]} "tube length, in ft"
q``_dot_s=q``_dot_s_max "heat flux criteria"

After solving the problem, you should see that EES has adjusted the length of the tube in order to
satisfy the heat flux requirement. The pressure drop requirement is still not satisfied. Therefore,
comment out the specified value of the diameter and substitute in an equation that enforces the
pressure drop design constraint:

{D_o_inch=0.25 [inch]} "tube diameter, in inch"
DELTAp=DELTAp_max "pressure drop criteria"

Again solve the problem and you should see that EES has simultaneously adjusted the length and
diameter of the tube in order to satisfy both design constraints. The maximum tube surface
temperature is 90C which is still sufficiently low. Therefore, the final heater design is L = 2.72
m (8.9 ft) and D
o
= 0.0079 m (0.31 inch).